“But my dear sir, if the fact of 2 + 3 = 5 exists somewhere outside your brain… then where is it?”
For some reason most mathematicians don’t seem to feel this sort of ontological angst about what math really means or what it means for a mathematical statement to be true. I can’t seem to articulate a single reason why this is, but let me say a few things that tend to wash away the angst.
it doesn’t matter “where it is”, it is a proven consequence of our axioms.
it is in every structure in the universe capable of representing integers and performing arithmetic on them.
there are many ways you can define the real numbers, but they’re all isomorphic. When making statements like “2 + 3 = 5” we don’t need to worry about which version of the reals we’re talking about; it’s true for all of them.
there’s a hierarchy of types of mathematical questions. At the bottom are recursive ones: questions we could answer with a big enough computer and enough time. Then there are R.E. questions: questions that if-the-answer-is-yes, we can confirm with a big enough computer and enough time (also, co-R.E., for if-the-answer-is-no). R.E. + co-R.E. is exactly the questions you can write in first-order logic (with the variables taking on integer values) with symbols for all recursive functions and only one quantifier. More quantifiers move you further up the hierarchy. Past that there are questions like the continuum hypothesis that aren’t even about numbers, and don’t seem to be constrained by anything physical. So even if you feel quite uneasy about what some mathematics means, remember that the stuff low on the hierarchy can be on solid ground even if the higher stuff isn’t.
“But my dear sir, if the fact of 2 + 3 = 5 exists somewhere outside your brain… then where is it?”
For some reason most mathematicians don’t seem to feel this sort of ontological angst about what math really means or what it means for a mathematical statement to be true. I can’t seem to articulate a single reason why this is, but let me say a few things that tend to wash away the angst.
it doesn’t matter “where it is”, it is a proven consequence of our axioms.
it is in every structure in the universe capable of representing integers and performing arithmetic on them.
there are many ways you can define the real numbers, but they’re all isomorphic. When making statements like “2 + 3 = 5” we don’t need to worry about which version of the reals we’re talking about; it’s true for all of them.
there’s a hierarchy of types of mathematical questions. At the bottom are recursive ones: questions we could answer with a big enough computer and enough time. Then there are R.E. questions: questions that if-the-answer-is-yes, we can confirm with a big enough computer and enough time (also, co-R.E., for if-the-answer-is-no). R.E. + co-R.E. is exactly the questions you can write in first-order logic (with the variables taking on integer values) with symbols for all recursive functions and only one quantifier. More quantifiers move you further up the hierarchy. Past that there are questions like the continuum hypothesis that aren’t even about numbers, and don’t seem to be constrained by anything physical. So even if you feel quite uneasy about what some mathematics means, remember that the stuff low on the hierarchy can be on solid ground even if the higher stuff isn’t.